


of bajor

by mickleborger



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-20
Updated: 2013-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-05 06:09:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1090539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mickleborger/pseuds/mickleborger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU.  In which Ben Sisko is actually Bajoran and the Maquis is somehow more than a bunch of disgruntled ex-Federation citizens with an unwarranted boner for Bajoran culture which they use to add meaning and purpose to their malcontent.</p>
            </blockquote>





	of bajor

Sisko Benjin, childhood friend of Ro Laren, is assigned to DS9 after its recapture.  He wants nothing to do with these wormhole aliens who are not gods, _cannot_ be gods; if there were gods that cared they would have done something for Bajor long ago.   _These_ are vultures and he does not trust them.

Kira Nerys does not like him: he is Starfleet.  He is of Bajor, but he is mostly of Starfleet; and instead of staying to fight for his world he cowed behind the Federation banners and prime directive.  His hands, unsullied, rest on the desk before him.  They tremble, but his eyes are steel and fixed on hers.  He is a vulture and she does not trust him.

But slowly they come to understand each other, because the Cardassians are the most invasive vultures of all and because the Prophets, ineffable, incomprehensible, do not allow further harm to come to Bajor.  Maybe the Prophets were distracted for the past sixty years.  Maybe Terok Nor offended them too much.  Maybe, if Deep Space Nine had a Bajoran name, they would shower them outright with gifts; because Prophets know better than any other gods that the Bajoran people have to _fight_ for their reconstruction.

And it is Ro Laren who is Maquis.  It is Ro Laren who, rage unguarded on her face, spits out her disdain and her disgust.   _We were friends, once_ , she hisses.  She feels betrayed; has only ever felt betrayed; did not expect _this_ , of all things, to come from Benjin, of all men.  She does not take herself for Jean Valjean nor Sisko for Javert because this is pretentious; she takes herself for Ro Laren, and Sisko for someone she can no longer recognize under all the Federation grime.  Sisko does not recognize her, neither, under her Maquis shroud.  They have drifted too far apart.

They tell him he is of Bajor but the gleam of Kira's dark eyes and the ghost of Ro's silver ones make him doubt himself.  His own eyes stare out into the darkness.  He does not recognize himself.


End file.
